The Key, the Sorcerer and the Gate
by Morena Evensong
Summary: Sequel to "Key in the Kingdom" Dawn and Merlin are still getting their feet wet in their interdimensional travels thanks to Dawn's powers, when their latest portal lands them in Colorado Springs. Random, yes. Supernatural? They don't think so... until Merlin discovers the dimension is magic-less and Dawn feels an unusual sensation. SG1 early season 7
1. Chapter 1

****Okay, so I promised and now here I'm delivering. This story is a sequel/side-story to my much longer story _Key in the Kingdom_. I strongly recommend to anyone unfamiliar with it, go back and read it first as otherwise the entire premise of this story won't make a whole lot of sense. Otherwise, sit back, relax and enjoy the insanity I've created!

Thanks to **theGlaistig** for betaing this story!

Disclaimer: _Merlin, Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and _Stargate: SG1_ all belong to their respective studios and writers. All I did was mash them all together.

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**The Key, the Sorcerer and the Gate**

_Story 1 of the Continuing Adventures of Dawn and Merlin_

It had taken a few months, but finally Merlin had gotten used to the twenty-first century. He still found it too fast, too loud and too cluttered, yet he also loved how interesting that made it. City streets were so vibrant and lively even though so much of them wasn't actually alive in the sense that Merlin could feel. And the different types of people! And the sheer amount of information he could access! And, and... he could go on.

It wasn't until his travels with Dawn that he realized how much he truly loved learning new things. Learning medicine from Gaius had been a necessity and not even one of his own choosing. Studying magic had been a love/hate affair at first: he loved using his magic and learning new spells, but he hated having to do so in secret, resenting that he couldn't do it freely, without the sliver of fear that haunted his steps. Later, when he'd been able to practice magic freely, he'd had responsibilities and developing his magic, learning new spells or creating them himself was always tied in to whatever problems were arising in the kingdom. Only rarely did he manage to have time completely to himself to practice or study whatever struck his fancy (he'd always wanted to learn to fly – without calling on the dragon).

Now, however, despite the great gaping hole where the other side of his coin was missing, he had the opportunity to simply be Merlin. Inasmuch as he could ever be simple...

After visiting two demon dimensions (because Merlin found himself fascinated by the differences and similarities between the magic of the Old Religion and the wilder, darker, non-human magic) Dawn had taken them to her own dimension, where he'd met Buffy Summers properly and gotten a more comprehensive crash-course in the twenty-first century so that he wouldn't make a complete idiot of himself should they get separated.

Their first two dimension hops after that were fairly uneventful. Well, relatively speaking. To Merlin everything was new and exciting. He was continuously amazed by how easily books and other things could be obtained. Both dimensions seemed more like alternate universes, as Dawn called them, being magically similar to Dawn's own. It was in the second dimension that Dawn had bought a large, hardcover notebook in order to keep notes on the attributes of each dimension/universe they visited.

By their third hop, they'd figured out a system. As soon as they came out of their bubble, they began to walk, just wandering around aimlessly until they figured out where they were. Usually a quick glance at a newspaper stand would tell them that, or else some business would contain the city's name in its own. This time it took all of two minutes for them to figure out where they were, because, as it turned out, they'd entered the dimension two alleys down from the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Merlin turned to Dawn.

"Alright, where is Colorado Springs?" he asked. Figuring out geography was her job for now; most of the geography Merlin knew was horribly out of date.

"America, in the state of Colorado," she answered with a frown. "Wow, that's really random. Why here? First time we were in another version of London and then the second time we weren't in London, but close enough for it to sort of make sense. This, however, is, like, nowhere near the area."

Merlin shrugged.

"Should we get a map?"

"Uh, yeah, probably. It's big enough and I've never been here."

So they found a small grocery (another thing Merlin couldn't quite get used to, having all that food together in one place and all year round) and bought some bottled water, a couple of apples and bananas, some energy bars, a newspaper and a map. Then they made their way to the closest park and it became Merlin's turn.

He sat down on the grass, took a deep breath and gently sent his magic into the ground. After a few moments, he frowned and pushed a little more, expanding his senses further, deeper.

Dawn sat nearby watching him with half an eye as she studied the newspaper, trying to figure out why her powers would've brought her here. Was there some sort of magical focus here, like a hellmouth? She didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, but then it had been proven to her more than once that having grown up on a hellmouth meant such things rarely felt unusual to her.

The newspaper was a bust as well. It was the perfect example of a city paper: crime seemed average, obituaries consisting of octogenarians and one cancer victim and no unusual-sounding sightings of anything. Or strange gas pipe explosions.

She skipped the sports, business and entertainment sections and then blinked in surprise when she suddenly found herself at the end of the paper. Merlin was usually done by the time she was finished the locals, let alone the rest of it. Dawn looked up, worried. Merlin was still in his meditative trance, although there was a confused frown on his face.

"Merlin?" she asked softly.

For two heartbeats, nothing happened. And then Merlin slowly opened his eyes, the golden glow of magic bright as he gathered his magic back to himself. It was an amazing thing to watch. Even if Dawn couldn't see magic the way Willow could, she could sense it enough to feel how the vast well of Merlin's magic retracted from his surroundings and was absorbed back into the shell of his body, filling each of his cells and giving them a vitality that had been lacking only seconds before. It wasn't that Merlin otherwise looked wane or unhealthy, but rather with his magic, Merlin somehow glowed. Seeing the transformation, subtle though it may be, made Dawn wonder how anyone could ever look at him and see just an ordinary man.

"It's... odd," Merlin finally said after the golden glow disappeared from his eyes. "The magic's there, it has to be: I'm pretty sure the world needs magic to exist as much as it needs water and sun. But, it's like..." He paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. "It's like the magic is dormant, asleep. I had to dig really deep in order to find it and then it felt more like a bubble somewhere in the centre of the Earth instead of a flowing entity."

He met Dawn's eyes, wincing slightly.

"I was a bit worried about what it meant, so I just sort of poked at the edges. It seemed to react to me, but sluggishly, um, like it wasn't used to being found?"

Dawn thought about this, wondering what it could possibly mean.

"So, you're saying you don't think anyone uses magic around here? That for all intents and purposes, this dimension is totally magicless?"

Merlin shrugged.

"Looks like it."

"Wow." Dawn paused. "I mean, I guess I always considered that a possibility. If there's dimensions out there with mostly demon-y magic, then there has to be one where there's no magic. It's just so... weird."

"Absolutely. It's like there's something missing."

"Do you think you can still do magic?"

Merlin looked at Dawn as though he were shocked by the very suggestion.

"Of course!" he exclaimed, looking almost offended. Then he made a slight face and shrugged as Dawn giggled. "I mean probably nothing too powerful, but as I'm apparently the only sorcerer _in_ this dimension, I don't think I'll need to be able to fight another magic user."

Just then, something happened.

Dawn had no idea what this 'something' was, only that she felt the rush through her bones and it wasn't anything like the rush of magic, yet it was also exactly like it. She gasped with the sensation, her head snapping in the direction it was coming from. In the far distance, somewhere behind all the buildings of the city, she could see a faint glow of... something. It almost felt familiar, not like something she knew, but maybe a second cousin of something she knew.

It vanished.

"Dawn, what is it?" Merlin asked.

He was standing next to her (when had she stood up?) looking in the same direction, eyes glowing with magic. Then the glow faded and he shook his head and turned to her.

"Your eyes were glowing green; what did you feel?" he asked.

Dawn blinked. Her eyes had been glowing?

"Oh. I'm, uh, I'm not sure. It was like magic, but not."

"It wasn't magic, I would've felt magic." He paused for a moment. "Want to check it out?"

"Oh yeah."

And that was how they found themselves hiding in the forest just as the moon was coming up, looking down at the huge, heavily-guarded gates of the Cheyenne Mountain USAF base. Dawn had felt the same sensation twice more during the afternoon, both times confirming they were going in the right direction and allowing her to consult their map and make a few guesses as to where they were likely coming from. A few city buses later, Dawn and Merlin had found themselves close enough to the edge of the city that they could walk into the forest and make their way towards the air force base.

Merlin was trying to wrap his head around the idea that a military fortress was _inside_ a mountain instead of on top of it. Meanwhile, Dawn was suddenly confronted with the reality of her utterly insane plan. In order to find out what it was she'd been feeling all day, they were going to have to break into a heavily-guarded military base.

Boy would she be embarrassed if they managed to get in and it turned out all she was feeling was the Santa-tracker. Fun story to tell Buffy, but maaajor embarrassment.

"Okay, so don't suppose you have any stealth spells we can use to help us get in?" she asked Merlin.

"You mean like turning us invisible or stopping time so that we can get past the guards?" Merlin answered with a smirk.

Dawn gaped. Merlin looked smug.

"Um, yeah, that'll do."

They decided to wait until morning, when more people would be moving in and out of the base – which went against Merlin's instincts, but after Dawn's description of security cameras, he agreed to her plan of following someone in. It also gave them the opportunity to grab a few hours of sleep before attempting to sneak into the mountain.

After a quick breakfast of energy bars and apples, Dawn and Merlin crept along the edge of the forest, until they'd gotten as close to the base as they could without using any magic. They'd ended up deciding to take their packs with them in case they got caught and Dawn had to hop them out of this dimension in a hurry.

Merlin whispered the spell, his flashed and Dawn felt the familiar tingle of magic settle around her. Her eyes widened as she suddenly realized the one major problem with an invisibility spell.

"Uh, Merlin, how are we going to do this if I can't see you?"

She jumped as something touched her arm and held on. She heard Merlin whisper something else and then another tingle layered itself over top of the first one. Merlin's figure shimmered into existence beside her, holding her arm, though he looked slightly paler, more ghost-like than usual.

"Merlin?"

Merlin grinned at her.

"I've perfected this one over the years. The first part of the spell is to make us invisible and then the second part makes us visible to each other."

"Oh. Cool." She echoed his grin. "So, we good to go then? No second thoughts?"

Merlin snorted.

"This is hardly the craziest thing I've ever done. Going out to face a dragon when I had no idea if I actually had the power to control it? That was insane. This... well alright, so this may be one of the more insane things I've ever done, but at least they aren't likely to kill me the second they see me."

"Because we'll be invisible."

"Exactly."

Dawn took a deep breath.

"Right, let's do this then."

Dawn thought that walking through the guard station, right in front of the guards, was very, very weird. Also, extremely cool. While they'd waited for the guards to open the gates for a legitimate person to drive through, she'd amused herself by making silly faces at them. The one on the right was especially cute, so she pinched his butt as she walked by. He yelped and swung his weapon around, looking for the evil, butt-pinching enemies. When his co-guard called out to him find out what was wrong, he flushed and resumed his post.

Merlin had to drag Dawn off before she gave them away by laughing out loud. But she could tell he was amused.

"That's nothing, you should've seen what Gwaine used to do," he said - well whispered, since they were trying to be as quiet as possible.

Their first snag awaited them just inside the entrance to the base. Dawn had to pull Merlin to the side.

"You know how you said you could stop time?" she whispered into his ear. He nodded. "Well, I think you'll need to use that now."

Merlin looked confused, glancing with a frown to the entry, which had two guards standing on either side of a white arch and a third manning some sort of moving counter like the grocery stores used. People were placing their bags onto it before passing through the arch and then picked them up on the other side. It all seemed a little silly to Merlin.

"That white thing they're all walking through?" Dawn began to answer his unspoken question when she realized this wouldn't make sense to him. "That's a metal detector – it'll sound an alarm if anything metal passes through it and I don't know about you, but I've got a short sword and a collapsible crossbow in my bag and at least two knives on me. And that's just the actual weapons."

A machine to detect metal? Merlin decided it was a really good thing no one wore armour anymore in the twenty-first century.

He grabbed Dawn's hand and told the world to stop. He never had managed to figure out how to describe to others exactly how he did it: whether just to stop the time of a specific thing, or for everything, it just sort of always happened when he wanted it to.

Everything around them froze and then Merlin led Dawn through the white metal detector arch. When they were on the other side and safely out of the way, he let loose his grip on the world and time around them resumed. They looked back at the security checkpoint.

"You know, if they do catch us, they'll never believe how we got in," Dawn whispered.

Merlin chuckled.

Dawn suddenly felt a faint brush of that same 'something' she'd felt yesterday coming. She turned around, trying to pin-point where it was coming from. She ignored Merlin's enquiries, focusing all her attention on that feeling. Finally, she spotted a woman with short blonde hair walking towards a set of elevators. Dawn followed quickly. Luckily, there was another security checkpoint between them and the elevators, which slowed her down.

Someone grabbed her arm and the world around Dawn froze. She blinked and then turned to Merlin, whose eyes were glowing.

"I figured we needed to get around the security station here anyway," he said by way of explanation. He motioned towards the woman. "I take it you want to follow that blonde woman, who just entered the line?"

"Wha- oh, uh, yeah," Dawn answered. "She feels, sort of the same as that whatever it was from yesterday, except not nearly as strong. Kind of... more like she's come into contact with it and I'm feeling residue from the contact."

Merlin nodded. "Magic does that too. I can't feel whatever it is you're feeling." He frowned. "At least I don't think so, anyway. Either way, there's definitely something off about her. I can feel it in the same way I can sometimes tell when a woman's pregnant or a person's near death. Except... " He shook his head. "I don't know, I really don't."

"But I guess that means you agree with my choice to use her to get in?"

"Yes."

They strolled past the security checkpoint. Dawn took a peek at it as they passed.

"Oooh, palm scans. Fancy."

"What do they do?"

"Scan your palm to make sure you're you." Just then, she noticed the emblem on the wall. "Hoshit! This is freakin' NORAD!"

"Which is?"

Dawn opened her mouth to answer. She closed it again, frowning. "You know, I can't remember what it stands for. It's some sort of national defence system of satellites and radars and stuff, to defend against attacks from the air. I think."

"Like those airplane things?"

"Yeah, like those."

Just then Dawn noticed Merlin was sweating a bit.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked.

Merlin nodded. "The lack of natural magic is making it more difficult to do spells. I mean, I'm nowhere near my limit, but it's like trying to walk against a gale-force wind."

"Oh my god, why didn't you say anything?"

"Sorry, I wanted to test it to see if it was just my imagination."

"Well, we're past the checkpoint now, so you can let it go."

The world resumed its regular motions.

Dawn and Merlin waited for the woman to pass through security. Just as she'd done so, something seemed to draw her attention and she looked back. She smiled widely at someone and then stepped to the side, waiting until a small brunette passed through security and signed the book at the end.

"Okay, new problem," Dawn hissed at Merlin. "What if more people join her in the elevator? We won't be able to hide if they're on top of us!"

Merlin looked behind them and his eyes glowed. If Dawn hadn't been looking, she probably wouldn't have noticed the floor suddenly become slightly shinier. They slipped into the elevator and stepped into the corner opposite the two women. Merlin grinned as several big, burly men suddenly had trouble keeping their balance on the smooth tile floor.

The doors closed just as the two women noticed the commotion. Dawn noticed with surprise they were going all the way to the bottom floor. During the ride down the two women chatted about random, inconsequential things. The two infiltrators did find out the shorter one was a doctor and her name was Janet and the blonde women they were originally following was called Sam and she was some sort of scientist.

Then the conversation turned much more personal and Dawn had to stuff a hand into her mouth in order to stifle the giggles that threatened to erupt at a pink-eared Merlin, who suddenly looked like he wanted to melt into the elevator wall.

Finally, the elevator stopped and the women got out.

And walked up to yet another security checkpoint. With a single elevator behind it. Dawn paused, looking around.

"Uh, Merlin, do you mind stopping time so we can just run to the elevator over there? I don't think I trust the empty corridor. This is starting to look like something super top secret and I'm thinking there might be, like, heat or motion sensors or something built into the walls that I can't see."

Merlin blinked, but nodded. He waved his hand and, once again, everything froze. He and Dawn quickly crossed over to where the elevators were. Once there, he resumed time and they waited for the two women to get in before following. There were clearly a lot less people going down to wherever it was they were heading.

Dawn was beginning to get really nervous. They were infiltrating a highly classified US military project. This was big deal.

If only her sister could see her now. No, scratch that. Buffy would kill her. Xander would find it very amusing, but would put on a 'responsible older brother' front. Spike and Faith would cheer her on and then demand to know why they weren't included in the fun.

The second elevator ride was rather short (although Dawn couldn't help but note that at this point they were very, very deep underground). They followed the women out of the elevator, down a hall and then into a relatively large room lined with metal lockers and full of women in various states of undress.

Thankfully, there was enough noise in the room to cover the stuttered choking noise Merlin made before he turned bright red and practically ran back out of the room. Dawn followed, her own face red from keeping her laughter in.

Eventually, the two women emerged from the locker room now dressed in military fatigues and looking like the air force officers they were. Dawn read the stitching on their uniforms as they stood by the elevators again: Major Janet Fraiser and Major Samantha Carter.

"So, I hear SG1's off on a mission tomorrow?" Janet was asking.

"Yup, briefing's in less than an hour, but I think I've pretty much already got my notes together," Sam answered. "I just want to go check and see if Daniel's in yet first. There's something that's bothering me about one of the MALP images."

"Well, when you see him, could you kindly remind Doctor Jackson to come by for his anti-histamine shot at some point today? Preferably in the morning, since SG12 are due back around eleven hundred hours and SG3 somewhere around fourteen hundred."

"Sure thing, Janet."

"Thanks." The elevator stopped. "Oh, well, guess this is my stop. See you around."

"See yah!"

Janet stepped out of the elevator and two men in camo fatigues took her place. They nodded a greeting to Sam, who nodded back, but none of them spoke. Dawn and Merlin had to do some clever side-stepping to avoid bumping into any of the them.

The floor they got off on looked exactly the same as both of the other floors they'd seen.

Following behind Sam became a bit more difficult as they had to dodge a lot more people on their way, many of them moving hurriedly along from place to place, which made them more erratic in their movements. As a result, they were quite a few feet behind Sam when she stopped at a door that was slightly ajar and didn't hear her address the person inside at first. They did, however, catch the slightly exasperated, worried look she directed at said person.

"-briefing in an hour," she was saying when they finally made it to her side.

"Briefing?" came a voice from the inside of the room – Dawn glimpsed a man with glasses sitting at a large computer desk and figured it was likely an office. "Wait, what time is it?"

There was a pause and then a string of curses in a surprisingly diverse number of languages. Anyone, who managed to curse in multiple languages and include at least one Dawn didn't recognize impressed her (especially, since there were a few languages she, thanks to Spike, _only _knew how to curse in). This man was also very inventive. Beside her, she could see Sam grin fondly at him.

"Guess this means you won't have time to look at something before we meet with the rest of the team?" she said lightly, clearly amused by her friend's panicked shuffling and file-saving.

"Uh, maybe...?" he looked back at the clock and sighed. "No, probably not."

Beside her, Dawn suddenly felt Merlin tense. His head whipped to the side and then he was quickly backpedalling as a large, dark shape moved into the space he'd just vacated. Dawn's eyes widened. She hadn't felt anyone approaching.

"Good morning, Major Carter, Daniel Jackson," the large, black man said in clipped, formal manner, nodding to each of them in turn.

"Good morning Teal'c," said Sam.

"Oh, hi Teal'c," Daniel echoed. "On your way to breakfast?"

"Indeed."

"Well, I'll be happy to join you." Sam smiled up at the big man, who somehow managed to take up half the corridor without trying. Then she turned to Daniel. "Daniel?"

"Um, you two go ahead and I'll meet you in the commissary after a quick shower," he said as he gulped down the last of his coffee.

The other two stepped to the side as Daniel ran out of his office with a parting 'See you in fifteen". Sam and Teal'c exchanged amused smiles. Sam shook her head, not noticing when her companion stiffened and frowned, eyes narrowing in suspicion as he began scanning their surroundings.

Dawn held her breath. The man was an imposing presence, but it was the coiled energy she could feel just underneath his skin that had her on edge. He reminded her of Buffy or Spike: a predator, a warrior. Odd Egyptian tattoo on his forehead aside, he also simply felt a bit off in a way that had Dawn's Sunnydaledar sounding Red Alert. He wasn't a demon, though.

Dawn took a step backwards, feeling the wall against her backpack. She twisted a bit to the side, so that her clothed arm was touching the metal wall and then, as quietly as possible, slid down the wall. He took another step towards her, now looming over her and Dawn wondered how long she could go without breathing.

"Teal'c?" Sam asked, finally noticing her companion's actions. "Is something-"

She froze mid-sentence and Dawn looked over and met Merlin's glowing eyes. Without a word, she slipped away, her eyes wide as she realized the man looked like he was about to reach out to touch the wall she'd been curled against.

"Okay, he's no ordinary soldier," she said needlessly.

"He feels different in the same way, uh, Sam does, but stronger," said Merlin with a nod. "Almost, I don't know, less human."

"He's not a demon though."

"Nor does he have any magic. I've never encountered anyone, who feels like him."

"Hmm... either way, he's a warrior and he's got great instincts. Which, you know, yay for him, not so yay for us."

"Do you still want to try and follow Sam?"

Dawn grimaced. "Not if this Teal'c guy sticks with her. And, come of think of it, that's a really weird name. I can't think of what language it would be from, but it doesn't sound like one of those made-up hippy names either. I suppose it could be from some small African tribe or something."

Merlin shrugged. Dawn looked over and noticed how pale his skin looked.

"We should probably get out of the way and let them leave. You need to conserve your energy."

Merlin had no objections to that, so they moved to the end of the corridor and then Merlin released the spell and the world moved on they way it was supposed to.

Teal'c reached out to touch the wall, sweeping the area in front of him with his hand and finding nothing. Sam looked worried, but eventually, he shook his head and stepped away from the wall. He took one, last look around him with confused eyes, which had Dawn and Merlin ducking down and around the corner, just in case he could feel their eyes on him. Both of them had experience dealing with seasoned warriors and neither one of them was willing to take any chances.

Finally, he seemed satisfied nothing was out of place and he and Sam walked off to get breakfast. Dawn and Merlin breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, what now?" Merlin whispered. Dawn thought about it for a minute.

"Wanna check out that office?" she whispered back. "Might give us an idea of what's going on here."

"Sure."

Had Dawn not needed to remain silent in order to maintain their cover, the office would've sent her into proper Californian throws of squealing rapture. It was a relatively large office lined with shelves full of texts, not one of them military. It didn't take her long to realize Daniel Jackson was a doctor of either archaeology, or linguistics, or possibly both, but either way something very close to Dawn's heart. There seemed to be a lot of ancient civilizations represented in both texts and artifacts around the office. Mostly Egyptian, but she also recognized a whole slew of others. The centre of the office was taken up by a large table littered with tablets, more artifacts, both open and closed texts and miles of papers.

It reminded her of Giles' office, only less organized.

Dawn sat down at the computer and wiggled the mouse to get the screen to come up. She swore when it asked her for a password. Hardly surprising, but annoying nonetheless. Then she noticed the ceramic jar sitting beside the computer. There was a legal pad full of hand-written notes. She began skimming the notes. Apparently, Jackson had been trying to decipher what was written on the jar in order to figure out what it was for and where it was from. As she read through the notes, she became more and more intrigued by the jar itself, but also by the mystery surrounding the project she and Merlin had infiltrated.

The very fact that the location the jar had been found in was written as a series of letters and numbers instead of a set of GPS co-ordinates or by the name of a country, town, or region was very curious.

Suddenly, Merlin was hissing a warning and Dawn put the legal pad down and stood up. Daniel Jackson entered his office in a hurry and Dawn and Merlin dived under the table. She winced at the pack she'd accidentally left laying beside the desk and hoped the man didn't trip over it. Thankfully, it still seemed to have that ghostly see-through look that meant it was invisible to everyone but her and Merlin.

From underneath the table, the two of them watched as the lower part of Daniel Jackson raced around the room. Dawn heard him fiddling with some sort of contraption on top of a table beside his desk, there was the sound of running water and then minutes later, Dawn had to nearly physically restrain herself from groaning as the wonderful aroma of coffee began to permeate the room. Then there was a lot of paper shuffling as Daniel frantically searched through the piles of paper on his desk and the table they were hiding under. Finally, the coffee finished brewing and the archaeologist poured himself a cup before grabbing a CD off the shelf above his desk along with a thick file and rushing out the door. He turned abruptly at the last second to turn off the lights and shut the door.

Several moments passed. Then, with a few whispered words, a blue ball of light floated upwards from Merlin's palm and bathed the office with an eerie, pale glow. They crawled out from under the table and Dawn walked over to turn the electrical light back on. The blue ball slowly shrunk and disappeared.

Dawn made a bee-line for the coffeemaker. She then frantically searched for an extra mug, making a face at the unidentifiable sludge at the bottom of the mug sitting next to it. She snorted at the mug though: it was covered with a print of the old movie poster for _Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_, except that someone had taken a permanent marker and crossed out 'Jones' and wrote in 'Jackson' and drew in a pair of glasses on Harrion Ford's face. She found five other mugs scattered around the office, all containing cold coffee of various ages.

"Need some help there?" Merlin finally asked.

"No, what I need is a clean mug."

Merlin walked over to the back of the office, where they'd heard running water from earlier. Sure enough, there was a small washroom there. Merlin turned the water on and whispered a spell he'd once used so often he no longer needed to think about its casting. He swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat as he remembered the first time Arthur had caught him using it. He heard Dawn yelp from the other room as the mug she was glaring at jumped up and floated away from her along with all its brother and sisters scattered around the room. Several plates, some cutlery and a water glass followed them.

Dawn peeked around the corner. For several moments she did nothing, merely stood there staring at Merlin, who was leaning against the wall next to the sink, smirking as the dishes all washed themselves, left the water and then became dry and gleaming in seconds. She stepped out of the way as they then floated out of the washroom and stacked themselves onto an empty space on the large table (the only empty space on the table).

"Remind me to make you watch _The Sword in the Stone_," she finally said. "Also, thank you; you're amazing and I love you."

Merlin chuckled.

"You're welcome," he answered.

Dawn grabbed the Indiana Jackson mug as it floated past her and went to pour herself some coffee. She took a sip and groaned happily.

"Oh wow, this guy's got the really good stuff," she said with a wide, blissful smile.

Then she walked back to Daniel Jackson's desk to take another look at the jar. She picked it up and blinked, turning it around completely around and blinked again.

"Huh," she said softly. "It's written in Fyarl. No wonder he's having such a hard time translating it."

"Dawn?"

"This jar, it's written in Fyarl, which is a demon language. Not a super uncommon one, but it's purely demon, no human influences whatsoever. Also, fyarl demons are kinda on the duller end of the tack box, so finding any sort of art with their language written on it is just plain weird. I wonder where the military got it from."

Dawn flipped through the legal pad Daniel Jackson had been using until she found a blank page. Then she folded all the other pages over so that she could write and set to work. Fyarl was a bizarre language: long-winded and prone to repeating itself in its natural form (people, who learned to speak Fyarl tended to dispense with the repeating and so the spoken language was slowly becoming shorter and simpler, but even more modern Fyarl was fairly long-winded in its written form and what Dawn was looking at had clearly never seen a modern dictionary of any kind). She'd done more difficult translations before, but this one was going to be tedious.

As Dawn concentrated on the demon jar, Merlin occupied himself by browsing through the books that lined the office walls. He wished he had the time to properly browse through the volumes, but they had only limited time and needed to figure out what was going on. Though warfare had clearly changed quite a bit since his time, he was certain that no army would study history or ancient artifacts just for the sake of knowledge. Especially with magic out of the equation altogether.

Unfortunately, it quickly became obvious to Merlin he had no idea what he was looking for. The history he was reading was fascinating. He'd heard of Egypt, certainly, and had always meant to someday go visit and learn from the magician priests he'd heard of, however he knew next to nothing about its actual history. In short, he had no idea whether what he was reading was at all out of the ordinary.

Looking over, he saw Dawn studiously writing on the legal pad, pausing every once in a while to adjust or squint at the jar in front of her. After a few moments of internal debating, he decided to leave her be for now. As he replaced the book he was currently holding back onto the shelf, he spied another shelf further to his right, this one full of large, black binders, each labled clearly with a white lable. Curious, Merlin walked over to them.

This, he decided, looked infinitely more promising. He pulled out the binder labled 'System Lords' and began leafing through it.

Dawn finally sat back and looked at the clock. Just over an hour had passed. She smiled proudly down at the finished translation.

"Finished?"

She turned to Merlin, who was looking up at her from the binder he'd been reading from. She smiled at him.

"Yup, all done. Although I still haven't got a clue where they got this thing from, but I think it actually explains a few things."

"Oh?"

Merlin placed the binder down on the table and went to walk over to her. Dawn got up to stretch her legs a bit.

Which was when the office door opened and Doctor Daniel Jackson walked in.

* * *

Well? How's that for a start, huh? I'd love to hear your comments now. Thanks for taking the time to read!


	2. Chapter 2

****Sorry for the wait everyone! I was absolutely thrilled at how many people liked the first part of this side-story, so many thanks to everyone, who took the time to read and review it! And to **the Glaistig** for betaing this part. Part 3 needs a bit of editing, but is otherwise done. With any luck it should be up within a week or two at most.

Disclaimer (do I really need to say this every time?): Don't own the Stargate, or Camelot, or Sunnydale or any of their respective citizens.

* * *

**The Key, the Sorcerer and the Gate, part 2**

First story in T_he Continuing Adventures of Dawn and Merlin_

_Merlin placed the binder down on the table and went to walk over to her. Dawn got up to stretch her legs a bit._

_Which was when the office door opened and Doctor Daniel Jackson walked in._

* * *

The first thing Doctor Jackson did when he entered was blink at the light and frown in confusion. However, he shook his head after a moment's pause and walked in all the way, leaving the door open a crack behind him. Then he put the papers he was carrying down onto the corner of the table, pushing them a bit further back when they threatened to topple over onto the floor. His next move was to head over to the coffeemaker and refill his mug.

He paused again just as he was about to put the coffee back onto the heating element and then lifted the pot back up to examine it with narrowed eyes. He growled at the amount of coffee left in the pot, before roughly shoving the carafe back into place and turning around.

Only to be stopped in his tracks by the pile of gleamingly-clean dishes stacked in the centre of the table. His bottom jaw fell slightly as he stared at it.

"Well, I suppose that's a fair exchange," he muttered eventually, running a hand through his hair.

Dawn and Merlin kept completely still as Daniel Jackson walked towards his desk, taking careful steps to the side in order to avoid him hearing them move out of his way. Dawn met Merlin's eyes, silently asking his opinion on what they should do next. Being boxed in inside the office for several hours didn't sound very appealing, but neither could they just walk out the door unless either someone else showed up to open it further or Merlin froze time again.

As a result, they didn't see Daniel Jackson notice the empty coffee cup next to his computer, or the legal pad open to a page full of handwriting that wasn't his. His chocked exclamation of surprise, however, got their attention.

Dawn winced as she watched him dive for the phone on the other side of his desk.

"Yes, hello, this is Daniel Jackson," he said when someone on the other end picked up. "Um, could you check the security footage for the past, uh, two hours or so and see who's been in my office? I left for a briefing at around 9:30, so it would've been after that."

Dawn froze. Her eyes widened as she exchanged panicked looks with Merlin. She scanned the office walls and cursed under her breath in Fyarl (it was a wonderful language to curse in) when she spied the security camera and its blinking red light in the corner of the office. She couldn't believe that after everything they'd seen at the base it hadn't occurred to her to check the office for cameras.

Clearly, she wasn't cut out for military infiltration.

"Yes, Sergent Jeffries, I'm also wondering how you managed to miss that," she heard Daniel practically growl into the phone. Then he frowned some more. "Really? That's, um, odd..." Then he stiffened and scanned his office with his eyes. "You're sure?" Slowly, he walked over and closed the office door the rest of the way. "Yes, I think you'd better. I'll call Jack- I mean, Colonel O'Neill."

Damn, thought Dawn as she began to sidle towards the door. Merlin placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. He shook his head and indicated she watch Daniel Jackson. It suddenly occurred to her that the man was rather lacking the usual freak-out most people in his position would likely be undergoing. Merlin was right, seeing how he and his colleagues responded to their presence (or rather the floating balls of light and dishes their cameras had undoubtedly caught) would be very telling. It might go a long way to explaining just what was going on here.

Daniel Jackson was on the phone again. He was casually leaning against his desk, facing the rest of his office. Dawn noticed he was watching what must've looked like an empty room to him like a hawk. He also looked a bit frustrated at the lack of response on the other end of the phone.

"Jack!" His face lit up with relief as the phone was picked up. "I'm so glad you're actually in your office." He snorted. "Jack, the only time you use your office is when the general threatens you with a court martial if you don't finish your paperwork... Yes it is, now stop whining, we've got a bit of a situation here."

His face turned serious and he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

"Uh, well, it's a bit funny actually, but either my office is haunted or we've been infiltrated by an alien with an invisibility device, who's an obsessive-compulsive caffeine addict." He listened for a few moments before rolling his eyes. "Very funny and yes, Jack, I'm fine. More than fine, in fact. Remember that jar SG5 brought back from P3T 158, the planet that had looked like it'd gone through a nuclear war, but lacked any sort of significant radiation levels?" Then he nodded. "Exactly, the language on the jar looked completely different from anything I'd ever seen. Well, this ghost/alien intruder translated the text for me. Personally I'm hoping for a ghost, in which case I vote we keep it."

Dawn missed the end of their conversation. She was too busy gaping at what she'd just heard. Aliens? Something totally weird happened and their first reaction was aliens? And hang on, did he just say that jar with the Fyarl writing was from another planet?

Actually, Dawn decided that would make a lot of sense. Glory had summoned a demon from outer space once, so why couldn't fyarl demons come from another planet? They were definitely one of the stranger demons out there.

A nudge had her turning over to look at Merlin, who was looking at her with a frown. Dawn couldn't help but notice how unperturbed the sorcerer seemed and tried to remember if Xander and Andrew had inducted him into the world of science fiction. She remembered there being mentions of Star Wars (although that could by explained simply by Andrew's mere presence), but couldn't remember if they'd actually watched it.

A soft click indicated that Daniel Jackson had just hung up. He then crossed over to the door and gently closed it shut. Dawn and Merlin exchanged worried looks and tried very hard not to breathe. The archaeologist looked around for a few moments before taking a deep breath and stepping out, closer to the centre of the room (or as close as he could get without climbing onto the table).

"Um, hello?" he addressed the empty air. "My name is Daniel Jackson, which you probably already know by now, I suppose. Uh, I promise we won't hurt you, unless you prove to be a threat, which I'm kinda hoping you're not because otherwise I have no idea what you're up to, not that I do now, but it would sure be nice not to give all those soldiers an excuse to shoot at something when there's the slightest chance we might be able to become friends."

Daniel swallowed and both Dawn and Merlin couldn't help but notice the pain that flashed in his eyes.

"I'm an archaeologist, a scholar, that means I study other cultures and I'd really love to meet you and get to know you. If you'll let me."

The sincerity in his eyes and manner made Dawn feel incredibly guilty. Suddenly she wished she really was from another planet so that she could let this man get to know her. Now, arguably, Sunnydale could almost count as its own culture and neither Dawn or Merlin were particularly normal by anyone's standards, but that wasn't quite the same as being from another planet.

Although, being from another dimension probably came close.

Daniel ran a hand through his hair and sighed and Merlin suddenly noticed just how tired the other man looked.

"Okay, I really hope you can't walk through walls, 'cause wouldn't that be embarrassing if I really was just talking to myself." Daniel looked up with an apologetic wince. "I don't suppose you could give me a sign of some sort that you're actually here, even if you don't want to talk to me?"

Dawn caught movement out of the corner of her eye and then looked on with amusement as Merlin's arm came up and his eyes glowed slightly. Across the room, Daniel's coffee mug levitated towards him. Daniel started, his eyes widened as he watched the mug float towards him.

Carefully, he plucked the mug out of thin air with both hands. He frowned slightly and Dawn had to put a hand over her mouth to suppress the giggle at his foiled attempt to come into contact with the person handing him the mug. Apparently, he hadn't counted on someone capable of both invisibility and levitation.

"Uh, thank you," Daniel said, motioning with the mug and then taking a drink. "So, are you trying to say I look tired or that you've figured out eighty percent of my body's liquid is coffee?"

Merlin grinned. Partially, it was at the situation and partially it was at Dawn's attempts to stop from making any noise despite wanting to break into a fit of giggles. It felt odd, being at the other end of an attempt to communicate. Usually, he was the one trying to lure something else out so he could talk to them and ask their help, or spare someone's life (often Gwaine or Arthur's as, for some reason, those two seemed to get into twice as much trouble as the rest of the knights combined). Although, in his case, he had the power of Emrys behind him and magical beings tended to answer his summons rather quickly even if they were then reluctant to do as he asked. This cautious, careful approach was endearing.

Merlin levitated a large, black marker, uncapped it and drew a smiley face on one of the blank-looking papers on the table in front of Daniel. Daniel chocked on his coffee. Dawn shot him an 'I hate you' glare' as she once again had to smother the laughter she'd just gotten under control.

A sharp knock on the door froze all the amusement in the room.

"Daniel?" a male voice called through the door. "Are you all right in there?"

"I'm fine, Jack, everything's under control!" Daniel called back. "Don't come in!"

A beeping noise came from the other side of the door and Daniel cursed under his breath as he put his coffee mug onto the table and raced to the door. He managed to stop the door from opening fully.

"Uh, Daniel?" the man on the other side of the door (Dawn assumed this was Jack, since the voice sounded like the one who'd just been yelling through the door).

"Jack," he said carefully, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice. "I told you not to come in."

Merlin caught a glimpse of a gray-haired man carrying a big, black object in his hands (it looked a bit like one of those 'gun' weapons Andrew had shown him once in a picture, only bigger) trying to look into the room. The man glared at Daniel.

"Daniel, I need to make sure the room is secure. Step aside."

"Jack, they're invisible, what exactly do you think you'll be able to see?"

"Well, then we'll get the Reetou detector in here and-"

"No, Jack. I've just gotten them to communicate with me. I'm not breaking whatever tentative trust we've got here just because you're feeling impatient."

"Wait, there's more than one of them?"

Daniel paused, blinking at the question. "Um, yeah, I-I think so." He ran a hand through his hair again. "And no, I'm not sure how I know that. I just- it _feels_ like there's two people in here."

Dawn was impressed. As far as she knew, they hadn't given away that there were two of them. She looked beside her to Merlin and frowned at the intense look of concentration on his face. The sorcerer's eyes flashed gold for a few seconds.

"Merlin?" she whispered after a quick peek to make sure Daniel was still talking to Jack and ignoring them. They were whispering now, clearly not wanting her or Merlin to hear them.

"I didn't notice it before," Merlin whispered back. "But there's something about Daniel. Something... unusual, yet..."

"Look, just trust me, Jack!" Daniel hissed as he stepped back from the door and attempted to shut it in the man's face.

Jack stopped the door from closing and glared at Daniel.

Merlin had enough years of dealing with stubborn prats to know what to do. Quietly, he slipped backwards to the washroom and glanced inside. With a smirk, he saw what he needed and stepped out again. It took almost no effort to make the damp wash rag that had been sitting crumpled in the corner next to a bottle of cleaner sail through the air. He only wished he'd been able to see Jack more clearly when it hit him square in the face and made him stumble far enough backwards for Merlin to then slam the door shut after him.

Daniel stared at the closed door for a few seconds, before he burst into laughter.

"Oh wow, that was... wow," he finally said as he wiped a tear from his left eye when he finally managed to get his laughter under control. "Well, that was certainly one way to deal with overbearing colonels. Thank you."

He grinned at the empty room. Dawn and Merlin grinned back even though he couldn't see them.

"So, uh, am I right? Are there really two of you?"

Dawn and Merlin exchanged looks. Dawn shrugged. Now that they'd been discovered it really didn't matter whether or not they knew there were two of them. Merlin levitated the marker again, which caught Daniel's attention. The man hurried back to the same sheet of paper as before in time to watch Merlin draw a somewhat lopsided YES on it.

Daniel smiled.

"I don't suppose you could tell me your names?"

Merlin cringed. Not that he had a problem with telling Daniel their names, but it was difficult enough to concentrate on making the marker write simple things, especially from upside down. They could just talk out loud without breaking the invisibility. He even knew a spell that made it sound like his voice was coming from all sides.

He looked to Dawn for her agreement and frowned at the expression on her face.

Dawn hadn't heard Daniel's question. She was too busy concentrating on the feeling that was creeping up on her. Normally, she could've probably shaken it off and walked on, but there was something oddly familiar about it. If one could actually feel a flu virus taking hold of them, this is what it would've felt like: like a slight tingly ache creeping through flesh before settling into the bones underneath.

Suddenly, a loud klaxon alarm went off.

She jumped and looked over to Merlin, who was now looking around him, attempting to figure out where the loud noise was coming from. Dawn looked at Daniel and relaxed. The archaeologist looked annoyed instead of concerned or nervous.

"Unauthorized gate activation!"

"What's going on?" Merlin hissed into Dawn's ear.

"No clue," Dawn whispered back. She paused and listened. "I think it's coming from the other side of the door."

"_Medical team to the gateroom!"_

Now Daniel looked worried, but then Dawn figured that was understandable; if a medical team was needed, that meant people were hurt. She wondered what the code was for 'help we're being attacked by aliens'. Then she remembered how deep underground they were and realized that was ludicrous; it would probably be a 'help the Earth is being attacked by aliens' code.

Just then a wave of intense energy rushed through her body, overwhelming her senses. She screamed and fell to her knees.

"Dawn!" Merlin exclaimed, dropping immediately to his friend's side.

He could feel the invisibility spell slide off them as his concentration slipped, but he was more concerned for Dawn. Her eyes were screwed shut in concentration, she was panting heavily and her brow was dotted with sweat. He hadn't seen her like this since that large bubble had appeared in the middle of Arthur's training session. He'd felt it, whatever it'd been, he'd felt it, but like a shadow. Clearly not as strongly as Dawn had in any case.

"I-I'm all right," she finally said, her voice shaky and breathless, as though she'd just ran a small marathon. "It doesn't hurt, it's just, wow, really intense. Surprised me is all."

"Are you okay?"

Both of them looked up to find Daniel had joined them. He was crouched down on one knee an arm's length away and had one hand extended to help steady Dawn if she needed it, but was far from actually touching. He looked worried, but his eyes widened and he gasped when he looked at Dawn.

Merlin frowned and also looked at her. He sucked in a surprised breath.

"Dawn, your eyes," he said.

Dawn made an annoyed face. "They're glowing, aren't they? Why does stuff like this always come with glowing eyes? It's, like, a total movie cliché."

"Yeah, they're glowing, but there's blue mixed in with the green."

"Huh?"

"_Security to the gateroom!"_

Daniel looked towards his office door. There was shouting out in the hallway and they could hear Jack's voice doing most of it. Just then Dawn gasped.

"Oh my god, what _is_ that?"

"What do you feel?" Merlin asked, his eyes glowing gold as he tried to see if he could tell what was going on.

"It-it's like there's something pulling at me. I'd say it wants me to come to it, but I'm not sure it's alive or has a consciousness."

"Something here, in the mountain, is effecting you?" Daniel asked with a frown.

"Uh, yeah, probably whatever top-secret Frankensteiny thing you have in the basement."

"You mean the gate?"

Dawn and Merlin exchanged looks.

"Gate?" Merlin asked carefully – gates, in his experience, never led to good places. "Gate to where?"

Daniel blinked.

"Maybe you know it as the chapa'ai?"

Dawn shook her head. "Nope, sorry, never heard of it."

Now Daniel looked really confused. He opened his mouth to say something-

"_All hands to the gateroom! Code red, I repeat, code red! All hands to the gateroom!"_

Daniel's eyes widened.

"That doesn't sound good," Merlin commented.

"It's not," Daniel said absently.

He stood and then hurried to the door. Dawn and Merlin exchanged looks and then shrugged before getting up and following slowly behind him. Daniel reached the door just as it was opened from the other side again.

"Sorry, Daniel time for talking is over," Jack announced as he strode in, big, mean-looking gun held in both hands and pointing at the ground – for now. "We've got a situation and somehow I'm not thinking our two little invisible friends are a coincidence."

"Um, actually Jack-"

"Little friends?" Dawn said, crossing her hands over her chest. "You haven't even bought me coffee yet! I'm not that easy, buster."

The look on the big, bad armed soldier's face as he took in their appearance was exactly what she'd expected. She smirked.

"What you were expecting horns, extra eyes and maybe a few tentacles?"

Jack gaped for a few more seconds and then turned to Daniel for an explanation. Daniel shrugged.

"I'm not entirely sure they came through the gate," he said. "They claim to not know what it is."

"Oh, and how exactly did they get in then?" Jack asked, although his sharp eyes were now firmly trained on Dawn and Merlin.

Dawn imagined that to most people, that look would likely be quite intimidating.

"The same way most people do, I imagine," said Merlin with a wide smile. "Through the front door."

Jack's eyes narrowed.

"Those 'front doors' are heavily-guarded."

"Invisible, remember?" said Dawn with an equally-wide smile.

"Wait, so you're really not..." Daniel ended with a sort of one-handed wave.

"Aliens? From another planet?" Dawn said and winced apologetically. "No, sorry. I'm from California and Merlin's from, um, England. It's almost like being from another planet, though."

"Almost," said Jack without any humour. "So is turning invisible the new fad down in sunny California?"

"No, not really. Besides, Merlin's the one making with the invisible. I'm just along for the ride on that one."

"I see." Jack's lips straightened into a thin, narrow line. "Collins, Rickman!" he barked.

"Sir!" came the twin reply and two young soldiers with equally big guns walked into the doorway.

"Stay here and watch these two. Any suspicious movements, shoot them. If they start going invisible, shoot them. I'm heading down to help in the gateroom."

"Jack, what's going on?"

Jack paused and then continued in low tones (Merlin whispered a spell under his breath, closing his eyes so that the glow wasn't visible, and suddenly he and Dawn could hear Jack as clearly as though he were standing next to them).

"SG3 came in hot under heavy fire, the iris jammed and then the gate malfunctioned and wouldn't shut down. Sam's working on it, but we've got jaffa coming through and the wormhole's not shutting down no matter what we do."

"What's a wormhole?" Merlin whispered to Dawn.

"It's, uh, a phenomenon in outer space, like a big swirly tunnel that connects two parts of space. I think."

"A bit like a portal, only one that stays in the same dimension?"

"Umm... yeah, I suppose...oh."

"Oh?"

"Oh. As in, oh crap." She bit her bottom lip as she looked at Merlin.

Merlin understood immediately.

"You think maybe their gate is attracted to you as the Key."

Dawn nodded, not wanting to say it out loud. Merlin reached out and squeezed her shoulder.

"Uh, sorry about that, you two," said Daniel when he made their way back to them. He didn't notice Merlin's eyes flash and Jack's hair turn bright pink as he, too, exited the room.

Dawn noticed the flash of pink, but she was a bit more preoccupied with the wide open door and the armed soldiers standing on either side of it.

"No, that's okay," she said.

"We understand," Merlin added. "It's a military man thing. I've had experience with those: see something you don't understand, stab first, ask questions and intentions later."

"The best way to deal with it is smile and nod and then go do your own thing anyway."

Daniel smiled at Dawn's comment. Merlin also smiled widely. Then he raised his arm towards the soldiers guarding the door.

"_Swefe nu."_

The soldiers barely had a chance to raise their guns before they were crumbling to the ground. Dawn saw Daniel's eyes widen as he took a step backwards, away from Merlin.

"Don't worry, they're only asleep," Merlin hurried to assure Daniel. "They'll wake up well-rested in a couple of hours wondering why they're sleeping on your office floor."

"H-how did you do that? And your eyes... are you a goauld?"

"A ghoul? No, I'm definitely alive. And a sorcerer."

"A sorcerer?"

"Yup," said Dawn as she picked up her pack and then moved past him towards the door. "Pretty powerful one too."

Merlin chuckled, grabbing his own pack from under the table.

"Some people would say that's an understatement," he said as he too moved past Daniel. At the door he turned around to the gaping archaeologist. "So... are you coming?"

Daniel blinked and then hurried after them.

"Okay, so I sort of assume we have to go down to get to this gate thing..." said Dawn as they walked. After a few minutes, she spied what she was looking for. "Oooh, excellent: stairs!"

"So, let's say I believe you're not a goauld," Daniel said as they ran down the stairs. Dawn couldn't help but notice he'd picked up a weapon from one of the fallen guards. "But I _do_ know that magic isn't real."

Dawn snorted.

"You travel to other planets using a gate with a wormhole, but you think magic is too incredible to believe in?"

"Hang on, how do you know that? I thought you said you didn't know what the stargate is."

"Magic," Merlin answered with a cheeky grin.

Dawn suddenly stopped in front of one of the doors and stared at it. Merlin looked to where the stairs continued on, going further into the depths underneath the mountain.

"It's here," she whispered.

By the way Daniel's eyes widened slightly, Merlin guessed she was right.

As soon as they entered the corridor, they could hear noises in echoing in the distance. There was a sharp staccato noise and a another, louder 'whoosh' of a noise that ended in an explosion.

"Gunfire," Dawn whispered. Merlin frowned, trying to remember his twenty-first century lessons.

"Guns shoot small, fast projectiles, right?" he asked.

"Yup, they're called bullets. And they're really fast."

Neither one of them noticed the odd look Daniel gave them.

They turned the corner just in time to see what looked like a small fireball (well, small by Merlin's standards) shoot into the corridor and impact the ceiling, leaving behind a smoldering circle of burned and partially-melted metal. They couldn't see past all the soldiers lining the corridor to get a good look at where the fireball had come from.

"Shit, they've gotten past the blast doors," Daniel hissed behind them. "This is bad."

Dawn took a deep breath, telling herself to count to twenty and think of the hellmouth. If she could survive the ubervamps, she could survive a couple of fireball-throwing aliens. Especially with a fireball-deflecting sorcerer by her side.

"Right, you ready?" she asked Merlin with a flippant smile Faith would've been proud of.

"Sure," he said. "I've smitted whole armies before. What's a few aliens after that?" He grinned mischievously. "How do you feel about a making a grand entrance worthy of a legend?"

"Uh, what are you two talking about?" Daniel asked.

"Just trying to figure out how many different shades of red we can get Jack's face to turn," Dawn answered with a wink.

"You can't go in there, it's dangerous! Not to mention you're unarmed... at least I think you're unarmed."

"Doesn't mean we're harmless," said Merlin. Then he motioned behind him. "By the way, how big is that room where all the fireballs are coming from?"

"Uh pretty big – get down!"

Merlin's eyes glowed and the blast heading directly at his back impacted on his shield, its energy dissipating harmlessly across the surface. Merlin took the opportunity to analyze the ball, realizing instantly it wasn't nearly as hot as some of the magical fireballs he'd had opponents use against him. Mordred, in particular, had loved using great big burning boulders of magical fire. Thankfully it hadn't been something he could do indefinitely.

He met Daniel's surprised eyes and smirked as he put an arm around Dawn's waist.

"I said we weren't harmless."

Then Merlin closed his eyes and concentrated on his body, the body held close to him, and his destination. This spell seemed to slip through the ether of existence easier than any of the other spells he'd used so far. For the first time he thought he felt a fraction of what Dawn must've been feeling, as though something was helping propel him forward. He thought he heard gasps as a familiar wind enveloped their bodies and carried them away.

Merlin knew the moment they'd arrived at their destination, could feel the wind settle back into the air and the ground beneath his feet – though it was a bit disconcerting that the solid ground wasn't connected to any life. He could feel several beings surrounding him and other heat sources he'd already come to associate with power sources of the twenty-first century.

He opened his eyes and looked around.

"Okay, that never gets old," Dawn said from beside him. He let go of her and she stepped away from him.

The first thing Dawn noticed was that Merlin had managed to transport them directly into the centre of the action. From where she stood, she could see the soldiers defending the big metal blast doors. They were looking at them with wide, confused eyes and a bit of dread. To her left she caught a glimpse of the enemy that had come through the 'gate'. They were big, burly men dressed in metallic armour with an obvious Egyptian motif. They wore identical tattoos on their foreheads, which Dawn recognized as the mark of the Egyptian goddess Bastet.

Her mind flashed to the big black man they'd run into earlier in the morning. Was that why he'd felt so funny to them, because he as an alien?

The second thing she noticed was that the weapon's fire had momentarily stopped.

Then she looked up into a large window, which was obviously meant to look down at what was going on in this room. There was a collection of very stunned-looking people looking back at her. However, her own eyes widened and she gasped when she spied the reflection of the object behind her.

She whirled around to face it, knowing instinctively that this was the gate Daniel had been talking about. The blue depths of the wormhole called to her like thousands of voices whispering into her ears, beckoning her forward.

Something grabbed her arm.

"Dawn?"

She turned to look at Merlin.

"This is it, this is what I've been feeling," she said. Suddenly she was shaking with excitement. "Oh my god, Merlin, it's like it knows who I am and it's calling to me."

Merlin let her go and watched with a worried frown as she ran up the metal ramp up to the gate. She paused for a few moments and then cautiously placed her right palm onto the shimmery blue surface of the wormhole. He thought it looked an awful lot like a pool that was facing the wrong direction.

He also didn't fail to notice the warriors, who had taken cover behind the far side of the ramp. Thankfully, he and Dawn seemed to have successfully managed to stun them into momentary confusion. They appeared unsure whether or not to fire upon Dawn.

"Oh wow, this is incredible," Dawn gasped. Her hand slipped in a little farther "This... it goes on forever, connecting to hundreds, no thousands of others, like a computer network. I can feel them, all these places..."

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing!"

"Young lady, step away from the stargate! It's not safe."

Merlin had ignored Jack's holler, but the second command startled him. The voice was loud and booming and seemed to some from all sides. He looked up at an older, bald man behind the big window, who was looking down at them with a fierce scowl and talking into a small, black stick. He was sure Xander had shown him something like that... right, it was called a microphone.

Merlin said a spell under his breath, noting how everyone stiffened when his eyes glowed with magic.

"Sorry," he said, his voice now booming throughout the room. "She's pretty sure your malfunction is sort of her fault, so she's trying to figure out how to fix it."

He smiled his best reassuring smile and turned back to Dawn and frowned. She was standing there, hand completely absorbed by the wormhole and eyes staring into it intently.

Just then two more alien warriors walked through the wormhole. Dawn didn't move, or acknowledge their existence in any way whatsoever, but the second one noticed her right away. He hesitated a moment and gave her a look most reserved for children under the age of ten, or crazy old women. Or, in Arthur's case, Merlin.

He apparently decided that when in doubt, shooting was always a good option, because his hesitation ended with the top of his staff being pointed at her. The shot that came, however, was aimed at him and burned through his lower torso.

Merlin turned towards the door with the humans and saw the smoldering staff end held by the warrior he and Dawn had encountered while following Sam. Well, now he knew where those fireballs were coming from. He smiled and nodded to the warrior in thanks and the warrior nodded back. When his eyes widened and he adjusted his weapon, Merlin turned to find himself staring at the end of another staff weapon.

"Tauri," the warrior on the other end of the weapon sneered. "Do you submit to your god?"

Merlin blinked and cocked his head.

* * *

Hehe, I like cliffhangers. You could say I'm making up for not being able to use them much in_ The Key in the Kingdom_. Or you could also say I'm just generally evil. =D

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the second part! Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

****Whew, okay, so this part took quite a bit of editing and rewriting to get it right, but now I'm finally happy with it and my beta's happy with it. Hopefully that means all of you will be happy with it too. Seriously though, thanks to everyone, who's been reading and especially to those of you, who've taken the time to review. So, here's the last part of Dawn and Merlin's first adventure together!

Thanks to **the Glaistig** for betaing this chapter and not being afraid to tell me it was crap the first time around!

Disclaimer: Clearly I don't own any of this. Well, except for the plot. Maybe.

* * *

**The Key, the Sorcerer and the Gate, part 3 **

_Story 1 of The Continuing Adventures of Dawn and Merlin_

_Merlin turned towards the door with the humans and saw the smoldering staff end held by the warrior he and Dawn had encountered while following Sam. Well, now he knew where those fireballs were coming from. He smiled and nodded to the warrior in thanks and the warrior nodded back. When his eyes widened and he adjusted his weapon, Merlin turned to find himself staring at the end of another staff weapon._

"_Tauri," the warrior on the other end of the weapon sneered. "Do you submit to your god?"_

_Merlin blinked and cocked his head._

* * *

"Tauri?" he said, trying to look as helplessly confused as he could. "Nope, sorry, I'm Merlin and I'm already the chosen one of my gods. No interest in any others, sorry. Mine keep me busy enough when they need me. Of course, I am sort of on an extended vacation at the moment, until their champion is needed again to take up his sword and defend the lands against all manner of evil creatures, sorcerers, sidhe, enchanted grasshoppers, blah, blah... It's all rather boring, really; I'm sure you're not interested."

He smiled widely. The large warrior growled at him. The end of the staff split with a hiss and Merlin was now looking into a red light. He took a single step backwards and the warrior grinned, convinced he had the upper hand.

"Get the hell away from there, kid!" he heard Jack yell.

The harsh staccato sound of gunfire erupted from the mouth of the corridor, sparks flew as bullets hit the metal ramp and ricocheted off. The deeper 'whooshes' of staff blasts answered them along with the dull explosions of their impacts. Behind Merlin, he could here a mechanical sliding noise ending with a metallic thump. He could here shouting and even identified Jack's voice, though he didn't pay any attention to the words.

Merlin didn't look away from the warrior – timing was everything.

The warrior fired. Merlin's eyes glowed as his shield enveloped him and stopped the fireball just before it hit him square in the face. Like before, its energy was distributed and absorbed into the shield. The warrior's eyes widened.

He fired again and just as before Merlin easily absorbed the energy. Then a fireball hit his shield from the right. Not having expected it, he didn't have a chance to absorb it, so, instead, it was deflected back on an angle. Merlin heard a cry of pain and winced inwardly. It hadn't been his intention to seriously harm anyone, but he knew better than to show it during a direct confrontation.

Merlin kept the shield up against other, stray attacks, but also because it meant his eyes were constantly shining. According to Arthur, he looked much more formidable that way. The warrior in front of him looked much less certain of himself than he had when he'd exited the gate.

"I told you I was the chosen of my gods," Merlin said quietly. He raised his hand and the warrior's eyes widened - there was some measure of fear in them. "_Bebiede þe arisan cwicum. Ic sele awesung ae._"

For a second, Merlin fondly remembered when this simple spell had once given him such a hard time. He was certain no one else could see the thin sheen of magic that settled into the weapon still pointed at him. The first indication that the spell had worked was a slight flick of the flat fin-like end of the staff weapon. It was barely noticeable, like the lazy movement of a cat waking up from its midday nap and only Merlin noticed. He lowered his hand with a pleased smile.

That seemed to only unnerve the warrior more and he shouted out something in a harsh-sounding language Merlin didn't recognize. He looked down when something bumped his side and his eyes widened in disbelief when he saw the end of his staff weapon swaying back in forth in steady motions. Suddenly, the stiff metal in his hands turned fluid and began to wriggle in his grasp. He looked up in time to watch the head of the staff weapon twist up and around to point at him, the large, spearhead-like end opening up at the lit-up split like a toothless snake that had swallowed a torch. It was completely silent, but if it had been capable of sound, it would clearly have been hissing madly.

The warrior let out a cry of terror just before throwing his previously-inanimate weapon away from himself. It landed onto the ramp with a loud clatter, but quickly managed to curl its tail underneath itself as it raised its upper part to almost eye-level with the warrior (a height that should've been impossible given the weapon's original size) and snapped its jaws angrily in his direction.

The warrior hurriedly backed up several steps and then tripped over his own feet, landing onto his backside and then proceeded to crawl backwards until his back hit a beam on the ramp's railing. His eyes wide and terrified as he stared at the snake-like creature his trusty weapon had become.

Another fireball impacted Merlin's shield. Merlin looked to his right. The other invaders were still firing their weapons at the base's soldiers, except for one, lighter-skinned warrior, whose was trained on Merlin.

Merlin raised his hand and sent him flying towards the far wall hard enough to knock him unconscious. This did not go unnoticed by his fellows. They paused in their firing, exchanging nervous glances amongst each other. Merlin whispered a spell under his breath.

"Lay down your weapons and you will not be harmed further!" Merlin's voiced boomed throughout the room. He pushed his magic and a single fierce gust of wind whipped from his body and into the rest of the room.

Merlin grit his teeth against the urge to pant. That gust of wind had taken much more effort than it should have – like trying to run uphill in armour (unless you were a knight, who did everything in armour and made it look absolutely effortless).

"Do it!" a deep voice called out from behind Merlin. Merlin turned to look at the warrior, who looked much calmer now, though he was still being watched by his staff weapon. Its jaws were closed now, though its head swayed with an even back and forth motion like a snake ready to strike. "There is no honour in a senseless death! Place down your weapons."

Merlin was relieved. He was beginning to feel tired and knew that the minute his blood stopped pumping with excitement from the battle, his limbs would feel as though they had lead pumping through them instead. A few tense moments passed and then the other warriors slowly placed their own staff weapons onto the ground in front of them and stepped back, away from them.

Almost immediately, Merlin heard Jack shout out orders and a dozen black and green attired soldiers with guns flooded the stargate room and surrounded them. Merlin watched only long enough to ascertain that the Earth soldiers weren't going to kill the rest of the invaders and then he turned back to the warrior behind him.

He walked up the ramp and grasped the living staff weapon.

"_Edhwierft_," he said and the weapon stiffened and then unwound itself and shortened until it was, once again, just an inanimate object.

Merlin threw it over the railing, not caring where it landed. As soon as the weapon was gone, the warrior relaxed and moved away from the railing. He made as if to stand, but then stayed down on one knee, bowing with one hand over his heart before Merlin.

"My deepest apologies, my lord," he said in voice that sounded like forced calmness. "I was not aware you were also a god. Please forgive me."

Merlin sighed.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Mol'tek, my lord."

"Then rise, Mol'tek."

The warrior rose to his feet. Standing higher up on the ramp made him tower over Merlin, though the sorcerer suspected he wasn't actually much taller. Merlin smiled up at him and let the magic drain from his eyes. There was fear and awe in Mol'tek's eyes, but the terror was gone. This was a warrior resigned to his fate and determined not to dishonour himself any further.

"I am no god, Mol'tek. I am powerful, yes, but still just a man. Once, I was important, the protector of a great man, a great ruler. Were I a god, I would've had both the strength and wisdom to ensure my king did not die. Unfortunately, it is not true."

Understanding flashed in Mol'tek's eyes. He bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement.

"I see you are as wise as you are powerful," he said. "Your king was a lucky man to have had you as his protector."

Merlin snorted.

"You're only saying that, because I haven't accidentally turned you into a cat yet."

Mol'tek looked confused for a few moments. Merlin, meanwhile, glanced at Dawn. She was still just standing there, although at least more of her hadn't disappeared into the wormhole. He hoped she hadn't gotten in over her head.

"You know, Mol'tek, my friend there's trying to shut down the, uh, gate, so if you and your friends want to get back then you'd better go now."

"We cannot."

Merlin blinked. "Huh? Why not?" He suddenly remembered the soldiers and their weapons. He waved vaguely in their direction. "Oh, I'll make sure they don't shoot at you as you're leaving."

"That's not the problem," said Daniel from just behind Merlin.

Merlin turned to him, noting the archaeologist's arms were raised upwards, his palms open to show he was unarmed. Behind him, more soldiers stood, looking slightly unsure and nervous, though their weapons were drawn and pointed at Mol'tek. Daniel didn't seem perturbed by the guns around him as he continued his explanation.

"It's an incoming wormhole and you can only travel one-way through an open wormhole. We'd need to close it and then reopen it for them to leave."

Merlin frowned, feeling like there was something he was still missing.

"And we can't do that?" he asked slowly.

"Oh, we can, of course we can, but that's not really the biggest problem." He looked to Mol'tek, as though prompting him to continue. Merlin looked to the warrior.

"If we return to my lord with failure, he will undoubtedly kill us as punishment."

Merlin was horrified. It wasn't like he hadn't known enemies, who'd done such things, but that didn't mean he ever understood it. And here he was, looking into the eyes of a man, who was dead if returned home.

"Do you have a wife, Mol'tek?" he suddenly asked. "Children?"

"I do not."

Merlin sighed with relief.

"You and your fellow jaffa will be welcomed with open arms by the Free Jaffa," announced a deep, powerful voice.

Merlin looked up. It was the dark-skinned warrior from the corridor with the odd-sounding name Merlin couldn't remember.

"You are Teal'c," said Mol'tek.

"I am."

Mol'tek studied Teal'c for a few moments and then looked back to Merlin, before glancing behind him to Dawn.

"I have never seen anyone attempt to deactivate the gate in that manner."

"Uh, yeah." Merlin rubbed the back of his neck. "Like me, she's a bit unique."

"I see."

"Speaking of which, I really should probably check on her."

As Merlin walked up the ramp, he heard Mol'tek telling Teal'c and Daniel he would speak with his comrades. Walking up the steep ramp even just the few steps made him realize again just how tired he was feeling. He hoped he wouldn't need to use any more powerful magic.

He stopped beside Dawn and watched her for a moment. Her eyes were glowing green with visible streaks of blue within the green. He summoned magic back into his eyes to get a better look. There was a green aura surrounding Dawn, which meant she was using her powers. That wasn't horribly worrying. The thin blue aura surrounding the green one, however, was.

"Dawn?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. "How are you doing?"

It took a while for her to respond.

"Merlin?" she asked, her throat a bit raspy.

"Yes, it's me."

"There's so much to explore here."

"I know, but you really need to close it now."

"Right, sorry."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she pulled her hand out of the wormhole until it was sitting just on the surface. Merlin watched the thin blue aura unwrap itself from around Dawn and slip back into the wormhole. Dawn's aura flashed once and then disappeared along with the blue shimmery surface of the wormhole.

She stepped away from the gate and wavered unsteadily. Merlin leapt to her side and caught her.

"Woah, it's okay," she said. "I'm fine, just a bit disorientated."

Merlin steered her around and down the ramp.

"So what was that all about?" he asked.

"Oh, it just wanted to say 'hi'."

"It wanted to say 'hi'?" asked a voice so heavy in sarcasm the letters practically hung in the air. Merlin noticed the disapproving look Daniel gave Jack. "What? It's a machine, fer cryin' out loud! Granted a really sophisticated and fancy piece of alien tech, but a machine not a kitten!"

Merlin wondered if Jack had noticed his pink hair yet. He certainly wasn't acting like he personally wanted to eviscerate him, so the likelihood was none of his subordinates had built up the courage to tell him.

Dawn, meanwhile, cocked her head thoughtfully and stared at Jack for several moments.

"Hmm... you must be the grouchy old man, who always pretends he's not limping when he comes home," she said after a while.

"I-I'm – what the... old?! I am NOT old and I don't limp after _every_ mission.."

"Colonel O'Neill, report!" Jack's stuttering was interrupted by the arrival of a heavy-set bald man. "What in Sam Hill is going on down here!"

Dawn noticed how Jack not only went silent, but also straightened when the man arrived. She remembered seeing him up in the viewing room on the other side of the window. So she'd been right, he was in charge. Which brought her to a more important question: what _had_ happened while she'd been mind-melding with the stargate?!

"Sir, we had two situations," Jack dutifully reported. Dawn grinned at the double-take the general (if she was remembering her military insignia correctly) did at seeing his subordinate's hair. "Situation one, with the jaffa, is being resolved." Everyone looked to where Teal'c was now chatting amiably with Mol'tek and his friends despite the number of guns still pointed at them. "Situation two, with the gate, has somehow been mysteriously resolved and I'm sure Carter's just chomping at the bit to figure that mystery out. Which brings us to surprise situation number three, which are the intruders that preceded situations one and two, whom we still know absolutely nothing about except that they claim to not be of extraterrestrial origin and _clearly_ aren't nearly as harmless as they led me to originally believe."

He glared at her and Dawn grinned.

"Aw come on, you didn't actually expect us to tell a bunch of soldiers working in a top secret military organization that we both have powers that defy normal, human understanding?" she said.

Jack glared at her.

"Besides, we never actually lied," she continued.

"We may have, possibly, omitted a few key facts," Merlin added. "Which, you probably wouldn't have believed in the first place, so that hardly counts."

"You mean, like that gizmo you used to deflect the staff blasts?" Jack asked. "Or perhaps you're referring to whatever dohickey you used to make the staff weapon _magically_ come to life?"

"Gizmo?" Merlin asked, having never heard the word before. "Dohickey?"

"He thinks you have a machine of some sort," Dawn explained. "You know to make yourself a shield with. And, uh, I'm not sure about the other thing; I wasn't actually paying attention to what you did."

"Oh. I don't have anything like that though."

"Yeah, right. Listen kid, I saw the glowing eye thing and the throwing jaffas against the wall with a hand device thing. Saw the shape-shifting staff weapon too, although I've gotta say that one was new and inventive. You are _definitely_ a snake of some sort. Maybe you're a Tok'ra, or maybe you're something else entirely, but either way: snake."

"Wow, and I thought my sister had the monopoly on explanations that confused people more than they explained," said Dawn, suddenly wishing she'd been paying attention to the action instead of the stargate.

Merlin, meanwhile looked insulted.

"I am _not _a snake! I could, however, turn _you _into one. A nice, harmless garter snake."

"Stand down, colonel!" The general studied both Dawn and Merlin intently for a few moments before coming to some sort of conclusion. "I'm General George Hammond, commander of this facility. Now, I understood from Colonel O'Neill earlier that you hadn't come through the stargate and were, in fact, from Earth."

He paused.

"It's true," said Dawn. "I'm Californian born and bred."

"And I was born in Albion," said Merlin.

"Albion?" Jack asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I thought you said you were from England."

"Albion's the old name for England, Jack," said Daniel.

Dawn and Merlin looked at each other, silently debating just how much to tell them. Merlin knew he wasn't up to much more defensive magic in an all-out battle – not without breaking the seal around this dimension's magic and he wasn't sure he wanted to deal with the immediate fallout of that happening – but he was fairly certain he could manage a few more spells to get them out of the gate room and down the hall to where their packs were. Plus, Dawn could open a portal to allow them to leave at any time.

He was also fairly certain they could count on Mol'tek and his warrior friends to help them out if they got really stuck.

Dawn agreed. Besides, now another familiar face was coming down to join them. It was Sam Carter.

"Why didn't he just call it England then?" they heard Jack ask – whine really, but they doubted Jack wanted that pointed out.

"Because, when I was born, we called it Albion," Merlin answered smoothly, looking away from their silent conference.

Daniel frowned.

"Albion's been known as England or the Britains for centuries..." he said.

Dawn shrugged.

"If it helps we're from other dimensions," she said simply.

All conversation stopped. That included the whispered one between General Hammond and Sam Carter. Jack's jaw dropped a little. Sam's jaw dropped a little too, although that seemed to have as much to do with Dawn's statement as it did with her first glimpse at the pink mop on top of Colonel O'Neill's head.

The blonde major caught Dawn's eye and looked meaningfully at Jack before gently pulling at her own hair and then subtly pointed at her. Dawn pointed at Merlin and winked mischievously. Sam bit her lip, but her eyes were laughing.

The general didn't miss their exchange and he caught Dawn's eyes with a healthy twinkle in his own.

"You-you're from another dimension?" Jack was getting annoyed now. He turned to Sam. "Carter, I thought the Quantum Mirror was destroyed!"

"It was, sir. They couldn't have come through there."

"And we, uh, didn't," Dawn added, rolling her eyes. "Geez, you guys are so military you're no fun. Okay, so short version of how we got here: I opened a portal and we came through somewhere by the police station in Colorado Springs. We wandered around 'till we found a map and then a park. Then, suddenly, I'm feeling something really wiggy. So Merlin and I decide to go find out what it is. I felt it a few more times, which was enough for us to figure out that military base inside a mountain was probably a good place for us to start looking for answers. So we snuck in. We made it as far as the lobby, where we saw Sam and then followed her into your super top secret lower levels. She led us to Daniel's office, where we had to stop following her, 'cause Teal'c over there is, like, amazing and nearly caught us. They left and we decided that, hey, research-guy's office was probably going to have some very useful stuff hanging around that might help us figure out what was going on. I found the jar and coffee and the rest you pretty much already know."

Daniel's eyes widened.

"You were the one, who translated that jar?" he asked.

Dawn nodded. "Yeah, and don't feel bad that you couldn't figure out the language. Fyarl is one of the few widely-used demon languages that doesn't have any basis in any human language."

"I'm sorry, but did you just say demon language?" Jack asked.

"Yup, sure did."

"And you do know there's no such thing as demons, right?"

"Not in this dimension, no. But there are in other dimensions."

Jack opened his mouth and then closed it. He shrugged.

"Yeah, okay, I guess I can live with that."

"Is the same true for magic?" Daniel asked.

Merlin smiled.

"Yes," he said. "Which is not to say your dimension doesn't have any at all. I don't think a world could actually exist without any magic. But yours has been sealed away so that no one can access it. I could if I really wanted to because I'm that powerful, but I don't suppose anyone has ever been born that powerful in this dimension. So, for all practical purposes, this dimension has no magic."

"Except for you," said Jack dryly. "And Dawn, I'm assuming."

"Uhh, sorta," said Dawn carefully, pausing to figure out just how to explain herself. "I mean, yeah, I suppose I do have magic of sorts, but nowhere near on the same level as Merlin here. I can make the odd pencil float and I can make spells work if I have a precise incantation and/or ritual to follow. But my whole green-eyed, glowy-portal-opening thing isn't the same at all. I-uh-I'm not entirely human. Or, rather, I am, sort of, but I wasn't always. See, I'm either thousands of years old, or about 12."

"Then you either look _really_ good for your age or, uh, really... good for your age..." Jack made a face at his failure at quipping.

"Assuming you're thousands of years old, what are you then?" Sam asked.

"I'm an entity known as the Key, which was a big green ball of energy until a goddess named Glorificus started searching for it, forcing the monks guarding it to give it human form and memories in order to hide it from her. The Key has the ability to open the walls between dimensions. A couple of years ago, the powers began to leak out, so I had to learn to control them. Which I did. I mean, I'm still learning, 'cause, believe it or not, the thing about being an entity several thousand - or possibly million for all we know - years old that was protected by a secret order of monks that got themselves killed by the goddess they were hiding it from, is that info on said entity is kinda a little scarce."

Sam Carter was staring at Dawn in awe.

"Okay, so does everyone want to remember back when I said I hated science fiction?" Jack said faintly.

Dawn looked at him and smirked.

"If it makes you feel any better, you can think of it as more supernatural or horror. My sister is the Vampire Slayer, after all."

"The what?" He put a hand up to stop any response. "No, you know what, I don't know and don't care, yadda. None of that in this dimension, right?"

Dawn paused. Suddenly, everything made sense. Well, maybe not completely everything, but a lot of things.

"Oh my god, no there isn't!" she exclaimed. She grabbed Merlin in her excitement and shook him. "Merlin, that's it! That's why the magic was sealed! This isn't just another dimension like Pylea or Camelot – or maybe this proves that all dimensions are actually alternate dimensions only with more extreme differences from one another than who won the elections last year!"

Merlin allowed himself to be shaken as he tried to figure out whether or not what Dawn was saying made any sense. He decided that, no, he honestly had no idea what she was going on about.

"Dawn," he said, stopping her. "I'm sorry, but I think you need to fast backward that. I have no idea what you're trying to say."

Dawn stared at him. Then she giggled.

"Fast backward? Merlin, it's fast forward. You mean rewind."

"Right, that thing." Merlin blushed at the chorus of snickers and badly-muffled giggles. Finally, he threw up his hands. "Oh, leave off, the twenty-first century is bloody confusing!"

The laughter stopped. Well, except for Dawn's, who took one look at everyone else and promptly lost it completely. She leaned against Merlin as she tried to get ahold of herself.

"Albion," said Daniel once Dawn had managed to stop her laughter. "That's why you called it Albion, because you're from the past." He paused. "Or possibly your dimension is at an earlier point in the timeline?"

Dawn nodded. "Pretty much. Time also seems to run differently relative to my dimension. I kept randomly popping into it when my powers were first, um, maturing, I suppose you could say. It's how we met."

"So where in Albion exactly are you from?" Daniel asked.

"Camelot," Merlin answered.

Jack immediately started looking around above them.

"As much as I'm sure I'm going to regret asking: Jack, what are you doing?" said Daniel with a pained sigh.

"Looking around for an owl named Archimedes."

Merlin blinked. "An owl? Why would there be an owl?"

"Yup, we sooo have to watch that movie," said Dawn. She turned to the general. "So, now that the craziness has been dealt with and all mysteries have been more or less solved, I don't suppose we could just be on our way now?"

"Well, considering what both of your are capable of, I don't suppose we'd really have a chance of stopping you," said General Hammond with a shake of his head. "However, I'd be very obliged if you'd tell me just how you got in. I understand you were invisible, but there are security measures in place even against that."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," said Dawn honestly. "I highly doubt there's anyone, who can replicate what Merlin did to get us in."

"I think we'll be the judges of that," said Jack. "We've seen some pretty strange stuff travelling through that gate, you know."

Dawn looked at him. "He stopped time."

Jack looked at Sam Carter. "I jinxed myself there, didn't I?"

"'Fraid so, sir," she said, before turning to Merlin with eyes that shone excitedly. "How do you it? Not even the Ancients managed to properly manage time."

Merlin sighed.

"I honestly don't know," he said. "It's just something I've always been able to do. I sort of tell the world to stop and it does. I can do it to an object too, freeze it in time, I mean. I start feeling a strain after a few minutes, but doing it is easy enough for me. I've, uh, never met anyone, who could do the same thing, so I don't have anyone to compare experiences with."

Sam looked disappointed.

"Here's a silly question, but how do we know you're even telling the truth?" said Jack. "I mean, it all sounds-"

Dawn looked at Merlin and raised an eyebrow. Merlin grinned back. Then his eyes glowed and Jack froze mid-rant. Dawn giggled as then raced through the open doors and down the hall. She grabbed their packs and raced back. Placing them down, she rifled through the front pocket on hers until she found what she was looking for. A quick glance to Merlin's sweating form told her to be as quick as possible.

When she was done, she stood back beside Merlin, who unfroze the world around them.

"-a bit hooky to me. I mean, really, freezing time?"

"Hooky, Jack?" said Daniel. "After everything we've seen, how is that possibly any more bizarre than...oh." He blinked. Then he chuckled. "Actually, nevermind, I think you're proof enough."

"What?"

"I believe, O'Neill, that what Daniel Jackson is trying to tell you is that you have been taken advantage of."

"I wha-"

"Airman, get the colonel a mirror," General Hammond commanded, his shoulders shaking slightly.

"Yes sir," said a nameless soldier with blond hair before running off.

The general turned to Dawn and Merlin. "Alright, I think you two have made your point quite aptly."

He looked pointedly at the green marker in Dawn's hand. Dawn smirked evilly, looking once again to the confused colonel, who was now eyeing her and her marker with narrowed, suspicious eyes. She looked proudly upon her handiwork.

Colonel O'Neill had a lovely green heart drawn on the centre of his forehead and the tip of his nose had also been decorated with a small, green circle. His left cheek had the words 'I luv Sam' written onto it. His right echoed it with the words 'I luv Daniel'. She'd decided that writing 'Dawn is a genius' across his neck would've been overkill, so she had left that alone.

"Forget the mirror, I want a camera," said Daniel.

"Already on it, Doc," said someone in a torn and dirty uniform holding a video camera.

"Ferretti," Jack growled.

"Nice one, Lou," said Daniel. "Just, uh, get ready to run when he gets that mirror."

"Oh, don't worry, Doc, I plan on being the wind."

Jack growled and took a few steps towards Lou Ferretti, who backpedalled expertly. Dawn giggled. She saw the general shaking his head at his people's antics.

"Looks like this place never gets boring," she commented.

"It most certainly does not, young lady," the general answered fondly. Then he looked at her and Merlin intently, a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't suppose I could persuade you and Merlin to stay here for a while. I'm sure Doctor Jackson would agree we have much we could learn from you."

"You have no idea how tempting it is for me to say yes to that," she said wistfully. "But, well, first of all, I can't guarantee that the same thing that happened with the stargate today won't happen the next time you try to use it while I'm around. Secondly, the whole point of this exercise was to explore my powers and I've really only started that. Plus, I think it'd be kinda neat to find out how and why the dimensions we come across are different from ours. Like a sort of science project, only I'm the only one, who can properly do it."

"Well, we have come across alien technology capable of interdimensional transportation," said Sam.

Dawn's eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it looked a bit like a-"

"Major!" Sam winced at the tone of Jack's voice. "Do I need to remind you that you work in a top-secret military facility. You know, the kind that doesn't go around sharing its day-to-day operations with others."

"Well you don't get much 'other' than us, that's for sure," Merlin commented, turning his full attention back to the conversation and away from his confused observations of the jaffa warriors. "Except maybe for them."

"And if there is, let's not find out about them," said Jack.

"Dawn?"

Dawn turned to Daniel, who was looking rather thoughtful.

"I don't suppose you have any theories as to what was in the jar you translated? I didn't get a chance to read your translation thoroughly, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't mentioned. I need to make sure it's safe before we attempt to open it."

"I think it should be safe," said Dawn confidently. "I read your notes on the planet the jar was found on and what it looked like. Based on that I'm pretty sure it's already been opened. If someone tried resealing it for some reason, it wouldn't have made any difference."

"And you think whatever was in that jar in the first place caused that scale of destruction?" Sam asked incredulously.

Dawn nodded solemnly.

"I'm pretty sure I know what happened. I just don't know how the jar could've gotten to that planet – other than that someone obviously carried it through the stargate. As in, I know why the jar exists and what its purpose was, but I don't get why someone would take it to another planet. Seems a bit of an extreme hiding place."

"The universe is actually full of humans, who were originally from Earth and were displaced to other planets by an alien race called the Goa'uld as slaves," Daniel answered.

Dawn thought about that.

"Okay, that could actually make sense." She paused before continuing slowly as she articulated her theory. "If the jar hadn't been used then someone would've been guarding it and they couldn't have been willing to risk it falling into enemy hands or even that it would be found by someone, who didn't know what it was. It's weird that it wasn't written in a human language, our version was written in Sumerian. Well, sort of. We didn't have a jar, because it had already been used, so maybe they picked a language that they could make sure only a select group of people knew..."

"Yadda," Jack interrupted impatiently. "Can we just skip to the part where you tell us what was in the damn jar?!"

"A demon," she said simply.

Jack blinked.

"Well, gee, somehow I would've expected a demon to be a bit, well, bigger. Or were we supposed to rub the jar first?"

"It wouldn't have had a corporeal form, like a spirit only waaay more evil and powerful."

"I thought you said there were no demons in this dimension," said Daniel with a frown.

Dawn shook her head.

"There aren't _anymore_. But there were once, a long, long time ago. That jar would've contained the last demon in existence in this dimension. Merlin would probably need to take a look at the jar to be certain, but I'm pretty sure it must have some really powerful wards and enchantments on it. First of all, to keep the demon inside the jar, but secondly to feed it just enough power to keep it alive despite the absence of magic outside the jar."

"Wait a minute," Sam interrupted suddenly. "If I've got this right, you're saying that there are no demons in this dimension because the magic that exists here has been sealed off."

"Yes," Merlin answered. "Magical or supernatural creatures can't exist without magic to draw upon."

"Which means it's probably safe to assume whoever sealed the magic in the first place probably did it in order to destroy any demons in this dimension?" Dawn and Merlin nodded. "So, why then would they go to all the effort of keeping one, last demon in this dimension?"

"Insurance," said Dawn. "In case the 'what if' factor came aknockin'. As Merlin here can probably attest to first-hand, the problem with getting rid of magic is that if someone or something magical manages to get in anyway, you then have exactly zero defences against it. And, like we've already proven, moving between dimensions isn't impossible whether on purpose or by accident."

"Uh, Dawn?" Merlin said with a frown. "I think you've missed something in your explanation. I know _I'm_ confused as to why a demon would be helpful with defence against magic."

Dawn blinked and went back over what she'd said. She nearly smacked herself.

"Oh, right, of course, sorry. So, to back up here first, you know how I said I'd figured out that my dimension and this one are really just alternate realities, but with really extreme differences between them?"

"Remember it, didn't understand it then, still don't understand it now," said Jack. Out of the corner of her eyes, Dawn saw the blond airman from before returning, carrying a small hand mirror.

"You mentioned your sister and that she was some sort of vampire hunter and that none of that existed in this dimension," said Daniel, the corners of his lips twitching as he too noticed the returning airman.

"Vampire Slayer – and, yes, there is a difference. A Vampire Slayer is a chosen warrior given super strength, speed and healing powers in order to fight vampires and demons as their equal. She's like the boogie man, er, woman, of the things that go bump in the night."

Dawn saw Jack take the mirror and decided to speed up her explanation.

"The Vampire Slayer was created thousands of years ago, when demons still ruled over the world and humans were fighting them for control. A bunch of elders took the essence of a very old and very powerful demon and forced it into the body of a young girl. When that girl died, this essence passed on into the body of the next one and so on and so forth-"

And outraged cry cut off Dawn's explanation. Dawn looked over at Jack and grinned at the expression of incredulous horror on his face. He was attempting to tug strands of his short hair into his line of sight to confirm it wasn't an illusion of some sort.

"You know, it's not a bad colour on you, Jack," said Daniel.

Jack growled.

"You froze time for long enough to dye my hair?!" he ground out.

Merlin laughed.

"Oh no, the time freezing was for Dawn to get a marker and draw on your face," he said. "I don't need that much time to change hair colour! It's a very simple spell. Used to use it on Arthur all the time when he annoyed me."

Jack glared at the too-bright smile on Merlin's face.

"Your hair has, in fact, been of that shade since you came down to help defend the gateroom," Teal'c said helpfully. The warrior's face was bright with amusement.

Jack opened and closed his mouth.

"WHAT?!"

He turned furious eyes on Dawn and Merlin.

"Get rid of it, now!" he hissed furiously. "The paint, the hair, all of it!"

"Oh please, I used washable marker," said Dawn with a dismissive wave. "Soap and water's all you need for that. The hair, though... well, that'll be a bit trickier. You're just going to have to be really nice to Merlin and maybe he'll turn it back."

Colonel Jack O'Neill's eyes narrowed and he turned his full ire onto Merlin, advancing slowly on the grinning sorcerer. Merlin backed away in sync with the colonel's advancement.

"Uh, general, with your permission I'm going to head down to see Doc Fraiser for my post-mission checkup now," said Lou Ferretti, who was no longer filming and had, instead, managed to slide past the enraged colonel and to the general's side, clutching the video camera as though it were a valuable artifact.

"Granted, major," General Hammond said with an amused twinkle. Then, more quietly, he added: "You'd better hurry."

"Yes sir!"

Major Ferretti turned and walked casually towards the exit, brushing past Sam Carter as he did with a wink.

"Freeze major!" Jack barked out. His eyes did a quick back and forth between Merlin and Ferretti, before he apparently decided making sure there were no pictures was more important than threatening Merlin to turn his hair back.

"Uh, sorry, colonel, I need to report to Doctor Fraiser, protocol and all that, you know," said the major as he backed away quickly, his hands hidden behind his back. "I mean, I could be carrying a symbiont and not even know it and that would be really bad. But I'll be sure to stop by right after my exam."

Jack growled. Lou Ferretti turned abruptly and booked it out of the gateroom.

"Stop, major! That's an order!"

Jack dashed after him.

Because his attention was very much elsewhere, he didn't notice when Merlin's eyes flashed. He also didn't notice until some time later that his hair was no longer sporting a trendy bright pink.

No sooner had he exited the gateroom, Sam pulled a video camera out from behind her back.

"Sergeant Siler!" she called. A tall man with glasses walked up to her. He was holding a staff weapon, which he'd been examining closely up until now.

"Yes, ma'am?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Take this to the lab and tell the techs to start working on it immediately. Make sure they make multiple backup copies and e-mail me a set as well."

The sergeant demonstrated a stoicism that would've made even Oz envious of as he accepted the video camera and hurried out of the room through the other door. Dawn giggled.

"Okay, that was good," she told Sam. Sam grinned back at her. "I almost feel sorry for Jack."

Daniel snorted.

"Don't bother. He'll get his own back."

"I figured. Hence the 'almost'."

"Major," General Hammond said, interrupting the general jocularity. Sam winced before turning to her commanding officer. "I have no idea what just happened here, however I feel it is my duty as commander of this base to be fully informed of all on-base operations."

Sam grinned.

"Absolutely, sir," she said. "I'll make sure to e-mail you as soon as I have exact details. Expect multiple attachments; I'm sure the techs will want to be very thorough."

"Thank you, major."

"You're welcome, sir."

"Aaaand on that note, I think it's about time the two of us became gone with the wind," said Dawn. "Or big green bubble, you know, whichever works."

"Already?" Daniel asked, looking disappointed. He turned imploring eyes to the general. "Surely, we could at least offer you lunch or something before you head off. I'd love to learn a bit more about the differences between our dimensions."

General Hammond smiled indulgently.

"Yes, Doctor Jackson, I'm sure we could arrange for something to be brought up to the briefing room."

Dawn and Merlin exchanged looks and then shrugged.

"Well, we certainly won't say no to free food."

Colonel O'Neill rejoined them along with the arrival of several plates of sandwiches and a bowl of fruit salad. He was still fuming, but his face was freshly-scrubbed (although there was still a faint outline of a green heart on his forehead). He also loudly promised many, many years of unpleasantness to whoever had the camera. Everyone assured him they had no idea where it was.

Which was more or less true: none of them had any idea _which _technician Siler had taken the camera to.

"You know, I kinda wish we had magic in this dimension," said Daniel wistfully as Dawn and Merlin shouldered their packs to leave. Sam had a few (in her words) instruments standing by to record Dawn's dimension-jumping. "I mean, it just feels like there's this entire underground culture we're missing."

"Yup, I definitely think we're missing out not having all those people-eating monster lurking in dark alleys," said Jack sarcastically.

Daniel rolled his eyes.

"Yes, but think of all the extra ways we'd have to fight the goa'uld."

"Hm."

"Actually, the goa'uld probably wouldn't have been able to establish themselves in the first place," said Merlin. Jack perked up at that suggestion. "I mean, it's rather difficult to be false gods in a place that has real gods. Or at least beings that have similar enough powers without the need for any sort of technology."

"I've certainly never heard of the goa'uld or the stargate and the Watcher's Council has records going back to ancient Sumeria," said Dawn with a shrug. "I mean, yeah, a lot of their collection was destroyed about 10 years ago or so, but there were copies of a lot of it in private collections that we've since then recovered."

"It would seem that one decision made a big difference in the development of our two dimensions," Teal'c commented.

"Yeah," said Dawn thoughtfully. "And you know, I'm not even sure which was the better decision. I mean, yeah, sure, even to me it feels like there's something missing in this dimension, but... Well, in this dimension the elders chose to fix the problem by cutting it off at the source and keeping a Pandora's box in case their seal ever broke. In mine, they solved it by creating a warrior that could fight it. And, in both, the end result for the human race was sort of the same: they won and the ruling demons were cast out."

She paused, thinking back to Sunnydale, to everything that had happened since then, to what she knew was still happening.

"But, you know, we may have won the war, but the battle didn't end," she continued softly. "It'll never end. My sister was 16 when she was called as a Slayer and that's considered old for a girl to be called. She became the oldest slayer ever when she turned 23."

She met Daniel's wide eyes.

"You might have the goa'uld and they sound like total supervillians and I'm sure they've done lots of horrible things along with enslaving and killing thousands of humans. If they never managed a foothold onto my Earth, then I'm sure the universe in my dimension looks very different and without their huge human slave base, they're probably not nearly as big and bad. But my world's still locked in an endless war of good versus evil - in the cosmic sense. Humans in my dimension can live peacefully because of the sacrifice of thousands of girls and young women, who have had no choice but become warriors against the darkness and dedicate their short lives to The Good Fight."

Daniel seemed to have nothing to say to that.

Dawn took a deep breath and forced herself to think happy thoughts. She smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, didn't mean to go so maudlin there," she said.

"Wha- no, no, that's perfectly fine," Daniel hurried to reassure her. "You're right. It's a trade-off. And- and, even with a first-hand knowledge of what the goa'uld have done and are capable of doing, I don't think I could choose which option is better either."

"Then it's probably a good thing you don't have to choose," said Jack, a finality in his voice that signalled the end of this particular discussion.

"Yeah, it probably is," said Daniel.

"Okay, I'm all set up!" Sam announced cheerfully. She was holding some sort of box-shaped instrument in her hands with an antenna she pointed at Dawn.

"Guess that's my cue," said Dawn. She scanned the room. "It was great meeting you all! We'll try and stop by again some time if we're in the neighbourhood."

"Yes, yes, by all means please do," said Jack. "Only next time, maybe try knocking on that front door. Saves a lot of trouble in the long run."

Dawn smirked.

"Sure thing, Jack."

As Merlin said his own farewells, she turned away from them and stretched out her hand, feeling for the dimensional walls. Her eyes glowed green and a green bubble began to grow in the corner of the room. Behind her, she was pretty sure she could hear Jack make some sort of comment, but she wasn't paying attention. It took her a bit more concentration than usual to stabilize the bubble-shaped doorway.

With one last wave, she and Merlin stepped through the bubble and into their next adventure.

* * *

Author's Notes:

**Merlin's Spell**: The spell Merlin used to animate the staff weapon is a variation of the one he used to animate the dog statue and then later on the snakes in Valiant's shield back in season one (episode 2 or 3, I think). The first bit is the actual spell, taken from the Merlin wiki, and the second part is my own mangling of Old English with the use of an online translator.

And that's all she wrote for this one! Don't know when the next installment will be, but be assured, there will be more of this series.


End file.
